In the
ultimate sense, re´ncarnation is impossible. There is no
past or future, and the idea of birth into a body has no
meaning either once or many times. Re´ncarnation cannot,
then, be true in any real sense. Our only question should
be, źIs the concept helpful?╗ And that depends, of
course, on what it is used for. If it is used to
strengthen the recognition of the eternal nature of life,
it is helpful indeed. Is any other question about it
really useful in lighting up the way? Like many other
beliefs, it can be bitterly misused. At least, such
misuse offers preoccupation and perhaps pride in the
past. At worst, it includes inertia in the present. In
between, many kinds of folly are possible.

Re´ncarnation
would not, under any circumstances, be the problem to be
dealt with now. If it were responsible for some
of the difficulties the individual faces now, his task
would still be only to escape from them now. If he is
laying the groundwork for a future life, he can still
work out his salvation only now. To some, there may be
comfort in the concept, and if it heartens them its value
is self-evident. It is certain, however, that the way to
salvation can be found by those who believe in
re´ncarnation and by those who do not. The idea cannot,
therefore, be regarded as essential to the curriculum.
There is always some risk in seeing the present in the
terms of the past. There is always some good in any
thought which strengthens the idea the life and the body
are not the same.

For out
purposes, it would not be helpful to take any definite
stand on re´ncarnation. A teacher of God should be as
helpful to those who believe in it as to those who do
not. If a definite stand were required of him, it would
merely limit his usefulness, as well as his own decision
making. Our course is not concerned with any concept that
is not acceptable to anyone, regardless of his formal
beliefs. His ego will be enough for him to cope with, and
it is not the part of wisdom to add sectarian
controversies to his burdens. Nor would there be an
advantage in his premature acceptance of the course
merely because it advocates a long-held belief of his
own.

It cannot
be too strongly emphasized that this course aims at a
complete reversal of thought. When this is finally
accomplished, issues such as the validity of
re´ncarnation become meaningless. Until then, they are
likely to be merely controversial. The teacher of God is,
therefore, wise to step away from all such questions, for
he has much to teach and learn apart from them. He should
both learn and teach that theoretical issues but waste
time, draining it away from its appointed purpose. If
there are aspects to any concept or belief that will be
helpful, he will be told about it. He will also be told
how to use it. What more need he know?

Does this
mean that the teacher of God should not believe in
re´ncarnation himself, or discuss it with others who do?
The answer is, certainly not! If he does believe in
re´ncarnation, it would be a mistake for him to renounce
the belief, unless his internal Teacher so advised. And
this is most unlikely. He might be advised that he is
misusing the belief in some way that is detrimental to
his pupil's advance or his own. Re´nterpretation would
then be recommended, because it is necessary. All that
must be recognized, however, is that birth was not the
beginning, and death is not the end. Yet even this much
is not required of the beginner. He need merely accept
the idea that what he knows is not necessarily all there
is to learn. His journey has begun.

The
emphasis of this course always remains the same;it
is at this moment that complete salvation is offered you,
and it is at this moment that you can accept it. This is
still your one responsibility. Atonement might be equated
with total escape from the past and total lack of
interest in the future. Heaven is here. There is nowhere
else. Heaven is now. There is no other time. No teaching
that does not lead to this is of concern to God's
teachers. All beliefs will point to this if properly
interpreted. In this sense, it can be said that their
truth lies in their usefulness. All beliefs that lead to
progress should be honored. this is the sole criterion
this course requires. No more than this is necessary.

Page 412:
Chapter 19
THE ATTAINMENT OF PEACE

IV. The
Obstacles to Peace

B. The
Second Obstacle: The belief the Body is Valuable for What It
Offers.

We said
that peace must first surmount the obstacle of your
desire to get rid of it. Where the attraction of guilt
holds sway, peace is not wanted. The second obstacle that
peace must flow across, and closely related to the first,
is the belief that the body is valuable for what it
offers. For here is the attraction of guilt made manifest
in the body, and seen in it.

This is the
value that you think peace would rob you of. This is what
you believe that it would dispossess, and leave you
homeless. And it is this for which you would deny a home
to peace. This źsacrifice╗ you feel to be too great to
make, too much to ask of you. Is it a sacrifice, or a
release? What has the body really given you that
justifies your strange belief that in it lies salvation?
Do you not see that this is the belief in death? Here is
the focus of the perception of Atonement as murder. Here
is the source of the idea that love is fear.

The Holy
Spirit's messengers are sent far beyond the body, calling
the mind to join in holy communion and be at peace. Such
is the message that I gave them for you. It is only the
messengers of fear that see the body, for they look for
what can suffer. Is it a sacrifice to be removed from
what can suffer? The Holy Spirit does not demand you
sacrifice the hope of the body's pleasure; it has
no hope of pleasure. But neither can it bring you fear of
pain. Pain is the only źsacrifice╗ the Holy Spirit
asks, and this He would remove.

Peace is
extended from you only to the eternal, and it reaches out
from the eternal in you It flows across all else The
second obstacle is no more solid than the first. For you
want neither to get rid of peace nor limit it. What are
these obstacles that you would interpose between peace
and its going forth but barriers you place between your
will and its accomplishment? You want communion, not the
feast of fear. You want salvation, not the pain of guilt.
And you want your Father, not a little mound of clay, to
be your home. In your holy relationship is your Father's
Son. He has not lost communion with Him, nor with
himself. When you agreed to join your brother, you
acknowledged this is so. This has no cost, but it has
release from cost.

You have
paid very dearly for your illusions, and nothing you have
paid for brought you peace. Are you not glad that Heaven
cannot be sacrificed, and sacrifice cannot be asked of
you? There is no obstacle that you can place before our
union, for in your holy relationship I am there already.
We will surmount all obstacles together, for we stand
within the gates and not outside. How easily the gates
are opened from within, to let peace through to bless the
tired world! Can it be difficult for us to walk past
barriers together, when you have joined the limitless?
The end of guilt is in your hands to give. Would you not
stop now to look for guilt in your brother?

Let me be
to you the symbol of the end of guilt, and look upon your
brother as you would look on me. Forgive me all the sins
you think the Son of God committed. And in the light of
your forgiveness he will remember who he is, and forget
what never was. I ask for your forgiveness, for if you
are guilty, so must I be But if I surmounted guilt and
overcame the world, you were with me. Would you see in me
the symbol of guilt or of the end of guilt, remembering
that what I signify to you see within yourself?

From your
holy relationship trough proclaims the truth, and love
looks on itself. Salvation flows from deep within the
home you offered to my Father and to me. And we are there
together, in the quiet communion in which the Father and
the Son are joined. O come ye faithful to the holy union
of the Father and the Son in you! And keep you not apart
from what is offered you in gratitude for giving peace
its home in Heaven. Send forth to all the world the
joyous message of the end of guilt, and all the world
will answer. Think of your happiness as everyone offers
you witness of the end of sin, and shows you that its
power is gone forever. Where can guilt be, when the
belief in sin is gone? And where is death, when its great
advocate is heard no more?

Forgive me
your illusions, and release me from punishment for what I
have not done. So will you learn the freedom that I
taught by teaching freedom to your brother, and so
releasing me. I am within your holy relationship, yet you
would imprison me behind the obstacles you raise to
freedom, and bar my way to you. Yet it is not possible to
keep away One Who is there already. And in him it is
possible that our communion, where we are joined already,
will be the focus of the new perception that will bring
light to all the world, contained in you.

The first time I read this part
of the book,
it hit me why so many idiots have claimed to be a savior while
killing the bodies of what they believe to be their enemies,
because źthey don't deserve to live╗. And from this, why all
the news we hear, everywhere, are just parts of the truth,
extracted and blown up to the unrecognizable, to scare the wits
out of us all.

I'm not stating that źThou
shalt Not Kill Thine Neighbor╗; because this źlaw╗ was just
what Jesus came here to fulfill, and by so doing, making them
obsolete.

The reason why someone might
interpret this text as an excuse to kill they're fellow human
beings, or other beings for that matter, is because they tend to
forget the base that everything in this existence is based on.
The Will of God. And what is the Will of God? 
Simply spoken, it is the sum of all free wills in the Universe.
And when you go against a free will of another, you  in
this context  automatically go against your own; or said
plainly: It virtually is impossible. You commit in the fantasy of
yourself and your surroundings, a sin toward yourself, as a
representation of the Child ship (children of God).

Of course, it is not possible to
go against the Will of God. What one does, when one kills
another, is that one fulfills the dreams of that other entity. In
this case, the dream is called źfear of death╗, or
unconsciously longing for the end of incarnation. So why then
fear, you might ask?

Then I come to the second point
of my reaction to the text. News. Journalists. And, of course,
the public.

What is this thing called news?
News is the thing that tingles us, that frightens us and that
makes us feel excitement. We don't think profoundly about it, we
just endeavor it.

The construction of news, is
made by the people we call journalists. A journalist is a person
who has the ability to extrapolate some bits of the truth, and
put them together in a way that makes it sound a bit more
frightening than it would be if you had all the pieces of the
truth. If it gets too frightening, we've got censors, called news
editors, that will stop the news from being told.

If you want to see what more I
have to tell you about the backwards thinking that allows you to
feel and believe in fear, please have a look here.

When you're done with that, you
may come back here, by hitting the Back-button on top of your
browser, and enter: